DARK ROOM THEORY

Let’s talk about one of the best practice tools- Dark Room Theory! Essentially, the concept is: 

You are in a room and all lights are off. Navigating is difficult without seeing! Whether you are trying to get your bearings and figure out where you are or simply curious to discover what’s in the room- you have to feel around to discover that information.

Paralleling that to practical use for acting, you don’t know what belongs in a performance until you literally feel it out. Practice makes perfect, they say. Well here, it actualizes the idea in the first place! A critical component to truly testing a script with Dark Room Theory effectively, is to do so without judgment of the idea from the very beginning. Being flexible and hyper-receptive is the goal. For example, let’s use the scenario of “You are having an intense discussion with a friend” and extrapolate the possibilities.

1. Comedy pairs well with this! Maybe when things get tense, you cut a joke to lighten the mood.

2. Perhaps the conversation becomes a little derivative with sarcastic jabs that are no longer on point.

3. In another scenario, you might feel sad and aren’t up for the discussion in the first place

4. Maybe you really enjoy intense dialogue and have fun with it! Friendly competition is how lots of people thrive and better themselves, and this is that avenue.

Now for part two- what says that all of these can’t be true simultaneously? Humans are layered and complicated, with mixed emotions. At first it’s sarcastic banter, but then it progresses to genuine discussion. You get down for a moment, but then your friend  throws in a joke here and there, while having healthy dialogue, to lighten the mood and you resolve the conversation on the same page.

With that said, what emotions belong are a great application for Dark Room Theory. Well, It’s actually useful for all acting concepts. All of the Actor’s Questions you should be asking yourself are susceptible, all technical choices you make (pacing, intonation, accents, etc.), sensory engagement with the scene (taste, touch, see, smell, hear), the applications only end with the way you think about a scene.

We’ve established how to use Dark Room Theory effectively, now let’s substantiate why. What is the operative intention of using this method? To gain context. The more you gain, the more you will be in tune with the scene. Even the performances that felt completely off because of the idea you went with have value, because now you know what doesn’t work. Over time you will guide yourself closer and closer to what you believe the heart of the narrative to be. Whereas, if you stay in one lane the entire time, you won’t see all the possibilities! 

The final note I want to leave you with is this; by identifying what does and does not work for a character or scene, you are intrinsically making choices and determining what is compelling to you, as well as what belongs for the script. This is a necessary component to being a great voice actor. Let Dark Room Theory pull that out of you and go record something with all your heart!